In 1954, the General Council of the Presbyterian Church in the USA requested the Board of Christian Education to formulate a statement which would articulate the position of the Church regarding public elementary and secondary education in the United States. Charged with this responsibility, the Committee on Religion and Public Education attempted to respond to five major concerns:

l) What should the PCUSA's conviction be regarding the place of public education in a free society?

2) What religious dimension in the experiences of students should Presbyterians expect and sanction in the schools?

3) What should the Church's attitude be toward the parochial school movement and other types of weekday systems of religious education?

4) What is the Church's responsibility to provide constructive motivation for the leaders who serve both in the public school and the church and to discover better means o¬£ communication between these institutions?

5) How can the Church provide religious education for its own youth and at the same time assume a role constructive influence in the educational efforts of the total community?

With these objectives in mind, the Committee studied the relationship of the Church to the public schools in different parts of the country through interviews and small group conferences. The Committee, comprised of prominent educators and churchmen with varying opinions, generated a report entitled "The Church and the Public Schools" which was accepted by the 169th General Assembly of the PCUSA in 1957.

Collection Overview

Record group 40 consists of the Committee's working papers. It includes the minutes of the Committee on Religion and Public Education, 1954-1957; the Committee's correspondence with churchmen and educators, 1954-1957; questionnaires, 1955; and the Committee's final report to the General Assembly, 1957.

Catalog Headings

The following headings have been used to index the description of this collection in the society’s electronic catalog.

Topical Subject

Church and education.

Religion in the public schools.

Church schools United States.

Genre-form

Minutes. aat

Questionnaires. aat

Collection Inventory

Box

Folder

Description

1

la

Finding Aid to Record Group 40

1

List of Committee Members, 1954

2

Correspondence, 1954-57

3

Conference questionnaires, 1955

4

Research items, 1954-57

5

Committee minutes, 1954-56

6

Printed materials pertaining to religion and public education, 1954-57